


Haunted

by Ao_no_ookami



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Comedy, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Oblivious
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29905398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ao_no_ookami/pseuds/Ao_no_ookami
Summary: All those, who have passed away lamenting a past action, remain as ghosts in the mortal realm. Although, they are given a chance to correct their mistakes, there is only a limited amount of time until they forget who they are.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character, Original Female Character/Original Male Character





	1. The living dead

We are constantly surrounded by death. No matter who you are, everyone dies at some point – others sooner than later. Loosing someone you were close to is a painful experience. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. But even though death lurks around every corner, that doesn’t mean you should be afraid of it. Some people are so afraid to die that they never truly begin to live. Life is a gift that should be treasured. It ought to be enjoyed thoroughly and shared with the people who you deeply care about. You never know when they could be taken from you. If they were to suddenly disappear from your life – do you remember the last words they said to you, the last hug you two shared, their last smile?

This is the story of how I lost my best friend.

-

Laura and I had grown up together. We had been best friends for as long as I can remember. It was funny how, even though we were complete opposites, we loved spending time with one another. I usually devoted my free time to reading fantasy or romance novels, listening to my favourite musicals and drawing. Laura, on the other hand, was extroverted, thrill-seeking and completely obsessed with horror movies. She loved to skate and spent most of her time outdoors, always covered in bruises from new tricks she had learned and _needed_ to show me. Even though she had made other friends who shared her hobbies, she never forgot about me. I never bothered making new friends. I found it hard and straining to talk to people and, besides, Laura was the only friend I ever needed.

Nevertheless, there was one interest that we shared: crime stories. We would spend hours theorising about unsolved murder mysteries, watching detective movies and reading crime fiction. Laura would often sleep over since we always lost track of time, being so engrossed in our conversations. I never wanted those nights to end.

But eventually it all came to an end.

-

The night before Halloween, Laura and some of her friends went to a supposedly haunted house. She had told me that the owner, who had passed away years ago, had no living relatives and thus, the house was left to its own demise, slowly falling apart. They were planning on scouting out the place, deciding whether or not it would make a good spot to spend Halloween there and tell scary stories. I told her straight away that this was a stupid idea and that I wouldn’t encourage it, let alone join in.

“My mom would never let me go out after dark on a school night.”

“Well –“

“I will not sneak out.”

“What! That was _not_ –“

I gave her a deadpan expression.

“Alright, you got me. But it’ll be so much fun!” she exclaimed.

“No”

“We could tell your mum that you’d stay over at my place…”

“No”

“I’d protect you if you’re scared!” she said all smug. I looked at her disbelievingly.

“Oh, so like the time you _saved_ me from that spider?”

Laura wanted to retort, but didn’t know how to respond to that.

“You wound me …” she said, feigning being offended. She put a hand over her heart and fell backwards on the bed in a dramatic fashion. I rolled my eyes at her, but couldn’t suppress a smile.

Instead of coming with them, I promised Laura to wait up on her. The idiot had forgotten her housekey _yet again_ and depended on me, if she wanted to have a place to stay the night. She would send me voice memos every once in a while, to keep me updated on their little adventure and promised to call once they were heading back.

-

_“Okay soooo… seems like I’m the first one here. Aight, first impressions: To be honest I can’t really see much, it’s pretty dark already. But there’s like definitely a spooky vibe. Anyways… Holy shit! Is that a cat? Oh my god, so cuuuute! Pspsps come here… aaaand it ran away. Damnit. Oh, I think I can see Felix. Heyyyyoooo”_

Felix, Linda and Toby were Laura’s skater friends. Felix and Linda are very dependable and sweet people. They had been dating for about half a year, sharing a passion for baking and music. Toby was very energetic and always spoke his mind. He could be fun to be around, but sometimes also a bit mean. Although he would instantly apologise when he said something wrong, I felt a little uneasy around him.

_“Hey, soooo we had a look around. Let me tell you I am so glad I was not the first one to walk in here. There are so many spider webs. Oh shut it! There are also some old portraits here and a ton of books! I wonder if we’re gonna see a ghost … That’d be sooo cool! Hahaha… Well, I’ll keep you updated. See you later!”_

I was listening to some instrumental music, doodling nothing in particular in my notebook and checking my phone every now and again to see if I had received any new messages.

Nothing.

But I’d promised to stay awake. So, I stayed up all night waiting for someone who would never come back.

-

I had called Laura several times that night. I was angry at her for making me promise to stay up, when she blatantly broke her promise by leaving my messages unread, my calls unanswered and just straight-up ghosting me!

When my alarm went off, I quickly shut it off and decided I wouldn't go to school. I was simply too tired – that was the understatement of the year. I felt like I hadn’t slept in days, like my eyebags had eyebags of their own. And besides, I didn’t want to see Laura. She had no right to treat me this way!

I turned my phone off and fell asleep.

-

I was woken up by my mum returning home earlier than I had anticipated. She had already heard the news and sat me down to talk. I slowly began to understand what had happened. Apparently, the railing of the old house’s balcony wasn’t as sturdy as it used to be …

Toby had immediately called an ambulance, but the paramedics couldn’t save her. She had already been dead when they arrived. The police questioned Linda, Felix, Toby and me – since I had been in contact with Laura shortly before it had happened. The court ruled it an accident, rightfully so.

When I heard about my best friend’s death, I felt my heart break. I didn’t cry, I didn’t say anything, I was just silently sitting there, existing. My mum said some reassuring words that didn’t quite register in my brain. She tried her best to comfort me, but I knew that she wouldn’t be able to help.

Laura would’ve known what to do.

Laura always knew what do say and what to do to make me feel better.

I quietly made my way upstairs and closed my door. I didn’t feel like talking. I sat on my bed for what felt like ages. My hand brushed a sweater Laura had forgotten here a few days ago. I hugged it close to my chest and curled in on myself, slowly drifting off to sleep. Sleep was soothing since not being awake meant not having to deal with reality. I didn’t need to face my thoughts and feelings while asleep.

-

I thought I’d cry.

I thought I’d feel sad.

But I didn’t. I just felt … empty.

One part of me wanted to forget all about her, erase my memories, burn any proof of her existence to surmount this pain. But another part of me wanted to cherish the memories we had, hang up pictures and make something, _anything_ to remember her by. But that wouldn’t change anything. No matter what I’d do, she’d never come back to me. It had all happened so suddenly, we never even got a chance to say goodbye.

Weeks go by and I eventually manage to leave my room again. At first, I just wander around the house. I feel anxious and I don’t know why, it’s hard to breathe. Everything reminds me of her, I see her everywhere I look. She practically lived here.

Progress is slow, but I eventually manage to go outside again. I decided to walk around the neighbourhood for a while. On my way, I pass strangers who had no idea of Laura’s existence, no idea of her death. These people never got the chance to meet her and see what a wonderful person she was. It’s weird how the death of a person doesn’t stop the world from spinning, doesn’t deter life from continuing. Eventually even the pain I’m feeling right now will cease to exist. My memories of my best friend will fade and be replaced by new experiences.

This was an awful realisation.

I didn’t want to forget her! How could I ever fail to recall the way her eyes shone viridescent in the light of the setting sun, her awful singing voice or the many hilarious conversations we had held when she was sleeptalking. I cherish these memories and don’t want to lose them. But we won’t ever be able to make new ones.

My mum wasn’t home when I came back. I couldn’t stop thinking about how our lives would’ve continued, had she stayed with me that night.

If only she hadn’t gone…

If only I hadn’t let her go…

I didn’t notice it at first, but I was crying. The tears I could’ve sworn I wasn’t capable of shedding, streamed down my cheeks. I was so angry and sad that I yelled out my frustrations. I yelled at myself, at people who weren’t here and into my pillow. It felt good letting out all of my pent-up emotions, similar to a weight lifting off of my heart.

-

After finally managing to talk about what had happened and accepting that this was indeed real, I scheduled a few therapy sessions. My therapist helped me deal with my grief and when I remarked that I regretted not having been able to tell Laura a few things, she said to write everything down in a letter.

I even started going to school again and stayed close to Linda, Felix and Toby. Even though we weren’t even really friends, they made sure I wasn’t alone and did their best to comfort me. They knew how much Laura had meant to me. After a while, I got more comfortable around them and opened up about the idea my therapist had given me.

“It’s not as if she’d ever read it” Toby said. Linda promptly punched his arm and glared at him. Toby was ready to throw hands until he saw the sad look in my eyes which immediately made him shut up.

“Well I for one don’t think it’s a bad idea. In fact, would you mind if I joined you?” Linda asked earnestly.

“It really is a sweet idea. We could all write something. It doesn’t even have to be that long. And we could visit her grave together and deposit them there” Felix chimed in.

“But what if someone reads them? I don’t just want to leave them there” Linda told him.

“We could burn them. At the grave. And watch the smoke rise up” Felix countered.

“That’s –“ Linda started.

“That’s a wonderful thought. Laura and I used to do something similar on New Years Eve” I told them.

And so a plan was formed. We all wrote a letter and burned them the following Saturday next to Laura’s grave before dawn.

It had taken me quite a while to come up with something to write. And once I had wanted to put my thoughts to paper, I had had difficulty finding accurate expressions. The feelings I had were to abstract to put into words. The sorrow I felt couldn’t be explained with phrases such as _I miss you_ or _I wish you would come back_. It was so much more than that. It had taken me a long time, but eventually I had held the most heartfealt letter I had ever written in my hands. It was full of stories we had created together, my adoration for Laura and my current grief. However, I didn’t end it on a negative note. While writing, I had come to the understanding that, although I will never forget my best friend, that doesn’t mean that I am forbidden from leading a joyful life. Of course I am still grieving at the moment, but eventually I will have moved on.

And that’s okay.

-

After a while, I started my daily routines again. I was in the process of learning how to accept the past events when my world got turned upside down once again.


	2. Home Sweet Home

Half a year had passed since Laura’s death. After walking up to her house twice – forgetting that she no longer lived there – I managed to move on with my life. I started hanging out with Linda, Felix and Toby every once in a while. They are pretty decent people and even though I’m not nearly as close to them as I had been with Laura, it’s reassuring to have some friends you can depend on.

After a long day at school, I warmed up some left-overs from yesterday, watched some TV and eventually headed to my room to start doing homework. As I opened my door, I saw something – or someone – sitting on my desk chair.

This cannot be fucking happening.

“I’ve officially lost it, I’m going crazy” I mumbled to myself. This seemed to attract the attention of the person who bared a striking resemblance to my dead best friend. The girl abruptly stood up and walked over to me.

“Okay, so don’t freak out…” the Laura look-alike said holding out her hands.

“Laura…?” I inquired cautiously.

“Yes” she answered.

“The fuck do you mean _don’t freak out_ , you’re supposed to be dead!” I yelled at her.

Instinctively I grabbed a pillow off of my bed and chucked it at Laura. It hit her straight in the face.

“Hey, what the hell?”

“Oh, _I’m sorry_ ” I said sarcastically. “I just wanted to check whether you were actually real and not just some kind of weird ... delusion my equal parts sleep-deprived and grieving brain came up with.”

Laura threw the pillow right back at me. It hit the wall behind me, knocking over a stand-up calendar on my nightstand. So she was real after all. The realisation of what was going on slowly started to sink in. The person whose death I had been mourning for the past six months was standing right in front of me. Very much not dead.

What. The. Hell.

I blurted out the only logical conclusion I came to. “You faked your own death?!”

She looked aghast. “Are you stupid? Of course not! I fell of a fucking balcony. Do you think I did that for fun?!”

“I don’t know! You jumped off a fucking cliff for fun!”

“That was two years ago! And you know very well that was for a dare. And I never … and I mean NEVER back down from a dare. Besides it wasn’t even dangerous”

I cocked an eyebrow at her.

“Whatever” she mumbled and looked down.

A long and uncomfortable silence hung between us.

“Then what in the world happened?” I asked. My voice was so quiet, it was almost a whisper. Tears welled up in my eyes but I pushed them down. I didn’t want to cry again. I’ve shed so many tears already. To distract myself and regain some sort of superficial control over my life, I had even made a happiness chart, indicating how I felt every day. It also showed how many days I could go without crying. We’re at day five at the moment and I was not about to break my streak. Still, the sadness slowly began to penetrate the wall of anger I had built up around me like a shield. Laura sighed deeply and started talking.

After having fallen from the balcony, she had sort of had an out-of-body experience. She had quickly gotten up after her fall and had walked towards Linda, Felix and Toby when they had come running out of the building. But they hadn’t payed her any attention. She had been confused until her gaze had landed on her own body. It had taken her a while to realise that she had died and that her consciousness seemed to have remained in this world, in the form of a spirit … or a ghost.

At first, she had been unable to leave the premises of the old house. Some kind of force had seemingly held her captive. But after a while, a ball of light had flown down from the sky and had landed right in the palm of her hand. It had looked as if a star had detached itself from the night sky. A voice had spoken to her through that little ball of light. It had sounded like a radio broadcast from decades ago. The voice explained that a person’s soul is trapped in the mortal realm, and therefore can’t ascend to the after-life, if the person has regrets when dying. But the longer a soul remains on Earth, the more the memories fade. Eventually, the soul will have forgotten who it is and will wander around aimlessly.

“So you’ve been alive for the past six month?”

“Define _alive_ … I mean I’m not –“

“You were _around_ and left me to suffer, alone and scared, thinking you had passed away?!”

“Please, calm down. It was hard to get a hang of this whole being dead thing. It took so much effort to move around. In the beginning, I could barely move a few steps a day. It felt like walking underwater. But worse. And then there was this one time I leaned against a tree and phased right through. Gosh, I was stuck for days… Apparently, I can alternate between permeating through things and whatever the opposite of that is”

“How come no one saw you. I’m sure someone would’ve helped you”

“That’s the thing. No one could see me, not even my own family. After hanging around my old room for a while, trying to figure out why I was still here, I decided to visit you. I was as shocked as you were about being visible. But I guess you must somehow be connected to my regret.”

Laura seemed to be deeply in thought, so that it came as a surprise to hear her best friend sniffling.

“I’m the reason you couldn’t move on?” My voice cracked. I quickly wiped my eyes with the sleave of my sweater. This doesn’t count. I’m not crying yet.

A look of realisation adorned Laura’s features. But it was quickly replaced by a look of concern when she registered the sadness that laced my voice. Before she could overthink her actions, she pulled me close. I held onto her shirt for dear life while she rubbed soothing circles on my back.

Oh, fuck the chart. The comforting words and reassuring gestures I had longed for pushed me over the edge. Before I knew it, tears started running down my cheeks.

After I had calmed down a bit, I leaned back to look up into Laura’s eyes. They were the colour of the ocean after a storm, green with a few brown specks in them.

“Then why did you not show up sooner? I was so lost without you…”

“I know…” Laura gently combed her fingers through my hair before resting her head on mine.

“I’m sorry” she mumbled into my hair.

I nuzzled up against her again. I felt secure in Laura’s embrace, tiny but safe. After holding each other for a while, Laura seemed a bit restless.

“What’s on your mind?” I cocked my head to the side and held her hands in mine.

“I …” Laura sighed. “I think I figured out what’s keeping me from moving on”

“Really? That’s great! What is it?”

“So… we’ve always been really close…”

“Yeah, we basically grew up together. Continue”

“And um… I always loved how you showed how much you cared with little gestures and gifts, you were always so good at arts and crafts, and um…” Laura found it hard to continue. She stumbled over her words, kept rephrasing her sentences. It was hard to follow. But then it hit me.

I gasped. “The bracelet!”

“The what now?” She looked completely taken aback. I leaned forward and pushed the sleave of her T-Shirt up to reveal nothing. There should’ve been a bracelet matching the one I was wearing.

“The friendship bracelet I made for us. Did you lose it?” I slapped her arm. I could see the pain in her eyes at my statement. That bracelet was a token of our friendship, it meant so much to her.

“I bet that’s what’s keeping you here. I promise you that I’ll help you find it!” I took both of Laura’s hands in mine and looked at her full of hope.

“Yeah…” Laura lied, deciding to keep her true intentions to herself, for now at least. She knew it was selfish, but she desperately wanted to spend more time with me. She couldn’t leave just yet.

“I’m sorry. I can’t remember where I put it” Laura lied again. Although she couldn’t remember why she had taken it off, she knew where she had last seen it and there was no way the two of them were heading back to the creepy old house.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll find it” I gave her a gentle smile, hoping to console her.

“Wait here. I’ll go get my notebook and write everything down that could help us in our search. Try to remember what places you visited last” I jumped up, making my way downstairs to scoop up my backpack, tripping over the living room rug on my way.

“I’m okay” I stated loudly. Laura watched me, leaning against the doorway of my bedroom.

“How did I fall for such an idiot?” she whispered to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it'll be quite a while until the main character's name is mentioned. Her name is Anna.  
> And for those of you wondering what the two girls look like:  
> -Laura has long, straight hair (often in a ponytail) and green-brown eyes. She has an athletic built and is quite tall.  
> -Anna has wavy blond hair and golden eyes. She is much smaller than Laura and a bit chubby.


	3. A dead end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First stop - Laura's home

The possible places where Laura could’ve lost the bracelet are as follows:

  * in her own room
  * at school
  * at the skatepark



“And you’re sure that there’s no other place you can think of where you might’ve lost it?” I asked her, twiddling the pencil in between my fingers.

“Jup, absolutely 100% sure.” Laura stated. It didn’t feel all that sincere, but that could’ve also been my imagination. It was getting pretty late and the day had been so eventful – that was the understatement of the decade – that I couldn’t keep my eyes open much longer. When we went to bed, I made sure to hold onto Laura. I didn’t want to wake up alone again, wanted to make sure this was real, that she was real.

-

When I woke up, my chest felt tight. No one was next to me. I felt betrayed, my mind had no right to play such horrible tricks on me.

“Wow, that was one hell of a dream…” I yawned into my hand.

I was so unprepared for the shirt that landed on my head. I tore it off and looked wide-eyed at Laura who was picking out some clothes for me to wear.

“Not a dream. Now get changed. We leave in half an hour.” Laura declared.

I couldn’t help but sigh. I felt so relieved that she was still here. When I finally got up and took my shirt off, she shrieked.

“What?!”

“Don’t change _here_! Have some decency!”

I was not at all amused. “You have seen me butt-naked so many times already. Why do you care now?”

“I just do. Okay? Now go. To. The. Bathroom.” she said pushing me out the door and blushing heavily.

When I returned to my room, Laura handed me my backpack and ruffled my freshly-combed hair. Just like she always did. I blew at the stands that had fallen into my face.

“Looks great, let’s go” she said, taking my hand and leading me down the stairs.

-

“Hey, how about we head to your house first? Your parents should already be at work, right?”

“I guess, but don’t you have school?”

“The first two hours are just PE We can skip that”

“Oh my goodness. What happened to you?! You’re not the law-abiding citizen I thought I knew!” Laura stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and feigned concern.

“Oh, cut it out. Half of the class skips PE anyways” I shoved her gently.

It was easy to get inside the house since Laura’s mum kept a spare key underneath a potted plant near the front door. We headed upstairs and went into the first room on the right.

“Woah” I can’t believe my eyes.

“What?” Laura looks around, trying to deduce what had caught my attention.

“I’ve never seen this place so tidy”

“Rude!” Laura pouted.

After spending over an hour roaming through Laura’s room, opening boxes and inspecting every little item, I sat down on her bed, defeated. The bracelet wasn’t here.

In one of the boxes I had opened, a picture frame poked out, its glass reflecting the light that shone in from the window. I picked it up and, upon closer inspection, memories of the day it had been taken started flooding back.

Laura and I had been in elementary school. She had showed me some old pictures of her dad skating when he had been in high-school and she had thought that it was the coolest thing ever. When her parents weren’t bickering, they were actually quite pleasant company. Anyways, her dad had still had his old skateboard stored somewhere in the depths of the garage and she had wanted to try out the sport for herself. She had begged her dad to take her to a near-by park and teach her the basics. He had showed her how to keep her balance on the board, how to gain speed and how to stop. Then, when she had learned how to do those things without any help, he had taken her picture. It showed 8-year-old Laura swaying on her dad’s skateboard, poking her tongue out and furrowing her brows because she was concentrating so hard on not falling.

She looked adorable. Also, she had kept that habit of poking her tongue out when she was extremely concentrated. I’ve been staring at the picture for a while, reminiscing. A warm feeling spread through my chest just remembering how much fun we had had back then. I was so lost in thought, that I didn’t realise that Laura had said something.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

The moment she wanted to repeat herself, we could suddenly hear keys jiggling downstairs and front door open. All the colour drained from my already pale face. When the initial surprise had faded, I sharply turned to Laura, who was desperately trying to close her bedroom door without making a sound. I glared at her.

“You said no one was gonna be home” I whispered indignantly.

“Well excuse me for not being omniscient” Laura shot back.

“Okay, stay calm” I put a hand on my chest.

“I am calm” Laura replied.

I glared at her. “I was talking to myself. Urgh! I completely forgot you had a brother” I whined.

“Seriously?” Laura raised an eyebrow at me. She was whispering too, even though she didn’t have to. It’s not like her brother could’ve heard her. If he had walked into the room, he would’ve seen me angrily whispering to myself.

“Well, he was always in his room. I saw him maybe four times. Can you blame me?”

Just as Laura wanted to say something, her brother walked up the stairs. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. Footsteps echoed in the hallway and paused in front of her room for a short while before moving along, heading into the room adjacent to hers. Loud music started playing from inside it.

I quietly let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. My heart rate also slowed, but I was still on edge.

“Let’s get out of here. We’ve looked everywhere, the bracelet is definitely not here. And besides, I do not want to have to explain to your brother what I am doing here” I admitted.

“Okay, just climb out the window. You can grab onto that tree branch and jump down. It’s not that high.” Just like she said, there was a thick branch that extended to just below her window.

“Yeah, not happening. If I wanted to kill myself, there are easier ways to do it”

“Come on! I used to climb down that way all the time when I was grounded. It’s easy. Look I’ll show you” She grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the window. Laura opened the window and peered outside. Then she halted.

As soon as Laura looked down, her vision blurred. She remembered the feeling of falling and got goosebumps. Thinking that she couldn’t possibly die a second time, she shook her head and swung one of her legs out the window. She placed the other one on the window’s ledge and pushed herself off, landing on the branch on all fours.

Even though she had briefly been scared, her body already knew the necessary steps and moved on its own. She didn’t have to think at all. Laura stood up, walked a few steps to the tree-trunk and crouched down. She put one hand on the trunk, the other on the branch and lowered herself down onto another thick branch a bit underneath her. Then she jumped onto the grass.

“See, it’s easy” Laura said wiping her hands on her trousers.

I just stared at her for a second. Sure, it was easy for her, but I have the agility of a walnut. I just sighed, sat myself down on the windowsill and mentally hyped myself up to take the small leap. I landed securely on my hands and knees but couldn’t bring myself to stand upright. I’m not afraid of heights and it’s not like I was far from the ground, but I was still afraid to fall. So I crawled towards the tree trunk, halting mid-way.

“Hey!” I yell-whispered.

“What?”

“What about the window?”

“What about it?”

“I can’t close it from the outside. Wouldn’t that be suspicious. Leaving it open, that is”

“Don’t worry about that. My mum regularly forgets to shut it. It’s fine!” Laura waved me off. I nodded in understanding.

“Now get your ass moving”

I didn’t even bother replying. I just stuck out my tongue at her instead.

Climbing down the tree went better than expected, until I tried to lower myself down. I couldn’t hold myself up any longer – my non-existent ab muscles wouldn’t comply. That was enough exercise for the week, I thought. Definitely more than what we would’ve done in PE. Although I shortly came into contact with the tree branch below, I slipped, failed to grab onto it and landed on the ground with my butt. The risk I had taken was calculated, but man was I bad at math.

It didn’t really hurt, but I nonetheless flushed with embarrassment, because Laura was roaring with laughter. So I just lay down on the grass and covered my face with my arm.

I shot up again after a moment.

“Wait a second”

“Hm?” Laura clutched her side, slowly coming down from her laughing fit.

“Why didn’t we just leave through the front door?” I stared at her incredulously.

“Cause my brother was home?” Laura shot me a confused look.

“Yeah, no I know. But he was _upstairs_.” At first, she didn’t understand what I was getting at, but then it occurred to her that he wouldn’t have heard us since he had been blasting music from his speakers and we probably wouldn’t have crossed paths.

“Oh. Ohhhhhh. Yeah, well… What’s done is done.” Laura shrugged and I groaned. She padded over to me and held out a hand to help me up.

“By the way” I asked.

“Hm?”

“What were you going to say back there?” I was curious. Laura’s cheeks tinted pink but she turned away so I couldn’t see.

“Oh, nothing. Don’t worry about it”

It was just another failed confession.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this story about 3 years ago and published it on deviantart. And I wanted to upload it to ao3 as well, but I wasn't satisfied with what I had written anymore. I want to revise the story quite a bit. It'll probably update very irregularly, but if someone wants to know how it's going to end, feel free to have a look at my deviantart account. The storyline will mostly remain the same but I want to include more comedy elements, more romance elements, discard a setting from the original story and replace it with something else. I hope you'll like it :)


End file.
